


Unsturdy Hands

by stardropdream (orphan_account)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Religious Conflict
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 09:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She did not yet have the strength.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unsturdy Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to LJ November 23, 2010.

It was a long, beautiful cloth. Soft to the touch. A gentle blue color, it slipped through her fingertips so easily.   
  
Her eyes flickered to the mirror.   
  
All she’d have to do was take the underscarf and wear it. She’d only have to drape the shawl over it. The fabric would leave the underscarf to show a little on her forehead, and it would drape over her head, cover her hair. She would only have to pin it down and then pull the long side of the shawl over the top of her head and drape it over the other side. She’d only have to adjust it so it was loose enough under her chin and let it fall wherever she wanted on top of her head. She would pin it down and that would be that.  
  
She saw so many of her women wearing them, saw the colors, the devotion—  
  
There was no shame in wearing western-style dresses. She’d done so for years, and so did many of the women with the scarves.  
  
She ran her fingers over the blue scarf, her eyes flickering away from the mirror’s edge to gaze down at the soft fabric, wavering just slightly in the warm breeze filtering in through the window.   
  
How much she longed to put the _hijab_ on. How much she longed for it—and yet. And yet she could not. Not yet. She saw so many of her women wearing them, the strength and courage they portrayed in wearing them, their assertion of their own faith and beliefs.   
  
How much she wished to be one of them, too.   
  
But not yet. She inhaled, and closed her eyes. She felt the breeze.   
  
She did not yet have the strength.   
  
  
  
  
**Notes:**  
  
\- Though Egypt is traditionally viewed as a foot-hold of secularism in the Middle East, there is a growing re-islamization in the country. Though the government remains "secular", more and more Egyptians are wearing the Islamic dress and Islamic customs.   
  
\- [Hijab](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijab). ( _Different_ from other Islamic dresses such as [the burqa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burqa). Contrary to people who use the words inter-changeably.) The Islamic headscarf has come to represent the oppression of women within Islam by many Westerners. Egyptian women in particular, in adjusting to modernity and incorporating their own religious beliefs into that modernity, view it as liberating and an expression of their own morality and faith towards God.   
  
\- Though many women are wearing the hijab again in Egypt after many years of secularism, there are still many more who do not. Among those women, there are many who "wish" to wear them, but always claim that they "lack the strength." Deciding to wear the hijab is a commitment - and it is not a decision that can be taken lightly.


End file.
